Chapter 1: The People of the Forest.
We've been flying since morning, leaving Wendy's house and the hideout far behind us. The island has been left in peace since the death of Hook. His crewmen fled in all directions and the island and its natives are free from the torment. Though the Indians went on and the faeries celebrated, for years and years. I kept alone. I knew without Wendy and the Lost boys, that my adventures would come to an end. It was hard to deal with them moving on without me, having families, getting jobs, and growing old. That life wasn't what I wanted, and coming home to the hideout alone, was becoming unbearable. So leaving my home island, was a choice I had to make for my own sanity.
Several islands pass under us; big and small, and all in different shapes with different sights, but none interested me. None caught my attention, imagination or thrill for adventure. By now the sun is high in the sky, and the ocean nearly bare of any life except for an oncoming large island off in the horizon. I slow down at a cloud and rest on top of the white fluff just above the island's shore.
The island is beautiful with luscious green forests with trees as tall as buildings, mountains that could shadow the sun when it went down to sleep and beautiful blue waterfalls. An island so grand surely would have some great adventures within it.
There, before me, sits a small city on the shore of the island. Boats docked at the decks remind me of Hook's ship. I frown at this. But the people are not dressed like pirates. However, there is a great deal of amount of adults co-existing here. My eyes wander and I count the sums of children in the city who play on the streets or follow their parents. Some are dirty and ragged, most likely forgotten just as I was, but while I watch them, I catch an unfamiliar view. Near one of the decks stands a stage a few feet off the ground with a boy and a man standing before a gathering crowd.
The boy stood straight, his hands tied behind his back and his head down. His eyes are shut as if he were trying to escape reality before him. The man, tall and tattered with scars, and muscles stood next to him with a rope dangling from his fists. I grab my spyglass from my vine belt, open it and take a better look. The rope is tied into a noose and the tall man next to the young boy loops it over his head.
I stand up, a fit of rage waves through me. Pocketing my spyglass I unsheathe my sword. "Tink, they're going to hang that boy!" I shout, and without her reply, I leap off the cloud and dive down to the village below. With a swift turn, I kick the tall man off the stage and down onto the cobblestone sidewalk. Landing next to the boy, I twist and cut the rope free from the pole it dangles from. "Go before they get you." I shout, urging the boy off the stage.
But the boy doesn't move. He looks up at me with confusion in his big, wide brown eyes. It has me curious as to why this boy was going to be hung. And then I notice something different from everyone else in the crowd. This boy has long, odd shaped ears; pointed in a sharp tip. They are like Tink's ears but longer.
His ears are different in the fact that they move, flickering up and down to the sound of the crowd surrounding us. The longer I watch, the more the crowd grows angry and the swifter the tall man stands up. I sheathe my sword and take out my knife, cutting the boy's hands free of the ropes that holds him hostage. The moment his hands are free; the boy leaps down the side of the stage. The crowd shifts out of the way as the boy runs through the small city and into the wilderness.
I follow the boys speed, flying near him as he races around the obstacles of trees, bushes, logs, boulders, and branches. He is silent on his feet as I am silent in the air, but he is also quick, quicker than an average human boy.
"Why were they going to hang you?" I ask.
The boy looks over at me just for a moment, but it's all it takes to stop him in his tracks. His brown eyes are wide again and his mouth is slightly open. "You're flying!" He stumbles back a little, nearly catching a root with the back of his feet.
A bright smile stretches across my face, it's the first time in a long time since I have smiled. Landing softly on the ground, I place both hands on my hips and lift my head proudly. "Of course I can. I am Peter Pan."
"Peter Pan?" The boy is cautious with his words.
"You have never heard of me?" I question. I thought my legend would go far and wide, but maybe I flew just a little too far from Neverland.
The boy shakes his head, and this has me frowning,
"Well, I did save your life. Can you tell me why you were going to be hanged and what you are?"
At this, Tinker Bell flies around the boy's head, getting a good hard look at him, but her buzzing has the boy waving his hands around his head to brush Tinker Bell off.
"I was going to be hanged because I am an elf." The boy sighs.
"An elf? I have never heard of such a creature."
"You have never heard of an elf before? Do you not live on this island or this world?" The boy questions skeptically.
"I am of this world, but not from this land. I came from an island far off in the horizon where pirates, Indians, and faeries live." I throw my thumb in the direction behind me. "I came here in hope for an adventure."
"From another island?" The elf asks, his brown eyebrows furrowing together while he thinks about this. "But you can fly, and you are human, this means you're a threat."
"I can fly because the faeries gave me this gift, and I am not like any other normal boy." I say with distaste.
"There is no adventure here." The boy almost hisses. "Just war, war between us elves and the humans." The elven boy turns on his heels and walks onward.
This frustrates me. I hate being compared to other people. I am different. I quickly follow behind the boy, my feet lifting off the ground as I silently float behind him.
"So, they were going to kill you because you are an elf?"
"Yes, the humans hate and fear our kind because we are born of nature and magic. We can live long lives and they can't." The elven boy takes a glimpse at me when he says this, but I smile proudly again after his comment.
"I haven't aged in years."
The elven boy pauses briefly, glancing in my direction and frowning. "We age only until about 18 to 19, some can go to about 24. But then we live looking that age for the rest of our lives, unless we are killed. Many of us have been murdered by the humans, and now there are only four clans of us that exist."
I dwell on this. Four clans of elves exist, but how many humans? Do they live on different islands or all on this one?
I follow him through the thickening forest and towards the mountain mass until we come upon a city in the trees. Lamps that look like flowers glow like candlelight, hanging high in the branches in various locations around and in the city. The buildings are elegantly built of wood and surround and enter the thick trunk trees. Bridges connect one building to another. On the ground is a massive fire pit in the center of the city whose fire reaches high up towards the branches above. It's beautiful.
"This is my home," the elven boy says, turning towards me. A group of adult elves come walking up to us with bows and arrows pointed at me. Instinctively, I grab the handle of my sword. "I don't think the elder will want you here." The boy eyes my sword.
Just as I think he's about to give me up to the adults, the young elf steps between the adults and I, his hands up and wary as he speaks in a different language to them. After a few seconds of communicating back and forth, the adults lower their bows and glower down at me.
"Lythin says you saved him from being hung," one of the adults says. His eyes are aged with experience, but his body looks like a young adult. "But we do not let humans exist amongst us."
A crowd of elves begins to surround us. They look curious, their eyes searching me and whispering to one another. I know I look different than the humans who were going to hang the elven boy. I am not in human clothes and other humans don't have a fairy hovering by their heads.
"But there is nowhere for him to go; he saved me in front of the humans. If he goes back, they will surely hang him to." Lythin pleads.
"We can't have him living here, it is too dangerous. He may as well be a spy." The adult elf turns his attention back to me. "Us letting you live is payment enough. We kill humans on the spot."
Slowly, I release the handle of my sword and examine the crowd. Most of them are adults, with a child or two mixed in. Even though they are older, they look nice, if not a little wary. My eyes scan the group until I catch a gap in the crowd. Beyond the bodies is a young elven girl about my age with long black hair and green eyes so bright that the leaves of the trees would be jealous. She's paying no mind to the crowd, just walking by to carry on with her day. But I can't help the feeling of butterflies fluttering in my chest. Wendy may have been pretty, but this girl is beautiful.
Just watching her has the sadness and loneliness melt away just the tiniest. Maybe I wouldn't have to be alone after all. Once she is out of sight, my heart feels dull and all the pain I was free from for a brief second, comes back.
I once made a home for myself, a hideout and brought Lost boys from all over to make a family. I can do it again.
"Do you need directions back to a human civilization?"
"I need no help from an adult."
Without another word needed to be said, I push off the ground and fly out of the crowd and into the sky.